Rep. Joe Barton made the debate over the Keystone Pipeline much more ridiculous by bringing up the Biblical Great Flood. PHOTO: Gage Skidmore, CC licence

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tx.), an ardent anthropogenic climate change denier, backed up his position that humans do not have anything to do with climate change by citing The Great Flood. As in, the one that Noah prepared for by building an ark and collecting two of each animal. Here’s Barton
on stage at his local open mic night
on the floor of the House of Representatives, discussing a bill that would fast-track the Keystone tar sands oil pipeline:

“I would point out that people like me who support hydrocarbon development don’t deny that the climate is changing. I think you can have an honest difference of opinion of what’s causing climate change without automatically being either all in that’s all because of mankind or it’s all just natural. I think there is a divergence of evidence.

I would point out that if you’re a believer in the Bible, one would have to say the Great Flood is an example of climate change and that certainly wasn’t because mankind had overdeveloped hydrocarbon energy.”

Okay. Point 1: there’s really no reason to cite the Great Flood, when there are many ice ages to choose from, and no one would deny that those actually happened. Point 2: For similar reasons, no one at all versed in climate science would say that humans are 100% responsible for every change in the climate. Point 3: Climatologists, who know more about the climate than every member of Congress put together, are in wide agreement that anthropogenic climate change is real, and significant enough that we will see major changes because of it in the next 50 years if not sooner. Point 4: If Barton wasn’t getting lots of campaign money from Big Oil, he wouldn’t bother making himself into a climate scientist, and might actually listen to the real climate scientists.